A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Duan Rong exhaled a breath of turbid air and suddenly sat up.

He was panting, staring blankly at Chu Wushang standing beside him.

The feeling of death he had just experienced still lingered in his heart, so real, yet now he was panting, clearly feeling his pulse and heartbeat.

He felt no joy at being reborn after death, because everything was too sudden, so sudden that it felt extremely unreal.

Duan Rong glanced at an empty porcelain bottle at Chu Wushang's feet, then touched his chest, where the blood hole had healed completely, and his heart was beating strongly inside.

After rubbing his hands, he found them sticky. When he lifted his hand, he saw a layer of white paste on his palm, which emitted a strange smell.

Duan Rong lowered his hands, stared intently at Chu Wushang, and suddenly said, "Is this the true meaning of a life-or-death confrontation? Is it really about letting me die once?"

Chu Wushang said coldly, "Savor the taste of death. Not everyone has the chance to truly die once."

After Chu Wushang finished speaking, his figure vanished like a ghost.

Duan Rong sat cross-legged, and at this moment, his eyes had become as deep as an abyss.

He had no doubt that he had just died once, because the strong taste of blood still lingered in his mouth.

The fear of having his heart removed by Chu Wushang was so profound that he could never forget it, no matter what.

But he has already experienced death once.

So what exactly is death? What did he see when he contemplated life and death?

Duan Rong sat cross-legged, entering a state of tranquil contemplation, carefully savoring the details of his experience of that real death.

After an incense stick had burned, he suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes filled with astonishment, and a chill ran through his body.

Death never existed in the first place.

Or rather, it is humanity that has magnified the meaning of death, imbuing that fleeting moment of disappearance with far too profound connotations.

Duan Rong came to this conclusion based on his own experience of death.

Death is, in fact, imperceptible.

You died so easily, so lightly.

What feelings could there be? Even if there were some feelings, they would only be the delusions of my own mind.

Human death is so light, so light that it cannot bear any meaning, because it just floats by so easily, and your life ends there.

The entire meaning and significance of death stem from humanity's obsessive attachment to life, and are forcibly imposed upon it. In other words, death only has meaning for the living, and that meaning originates from their imagination.

Real death is simply the passing of a moment. In essence, it is the same as a gust of wind blowing across the water or a leaf falling from a tree; they are all natural phenomena.

One whale falls, and all things come to life; life and death are merely a cycle in nature. Only the individual about to perish, whose very existence stems from the fear of death, or perhaps more accurately, from the obsession with life, constructs the concept of death.

"Life is but a temporary stay, death is like returning home!"

"Human beings' obsession with longevity is fundamentally against the natural order."

"If death is inevitable, it's better to let it go peacefully. Because life and death are simply concepts conceived by humankind. When the concepts disappear, the fear disappears."

"Ideas shape humanity, and ideas also trap humanity."

"Break free from the shackles of preconceived notions, and you will attain true freedom!"

At this moment, Duan Rong's mind was clear and bright. His originally firm and persistent Dao heart became soft and full of vitality, and his face and eyes had a faint sense of otherworldliness.

"Those who are not attached to life will attain longevity."

After Duan Rong uttered these words calmly, he slowly emerged from his meditation.

Letting go of life and death does not mean transcending lust.

Sometimes, this thing is harder to resolve than life and death!
Duan Rong sat there cross-legged, glancing at the corpse not far away.

The corpse was swollen and bloated, like an inflated air sac. Its belly and chest cavity were bulging, and its face was so swollen that its features were squeezed into mud, severely deformed and unrecognizable.

The swollen body, with its rotting skin, was crawling with maggots...

Duan Rong's eyelids twitched slightly.

"Giants!?"

After death, putrefactive bacteria proliferate in the body, producing increasing amounts of putrefactive gases. These gases accumulate, causing the corpse to swell like an air sac. This abnormal change in the body is called gigantism.

Just then, Duan Rong suddenly noticed that putrid fluid and foam were slowly oozing from the swollen corpse's neck...

Duan Rong's face turned extremely pale. He knew the corpse's face was swollen beyond recognition, and it had forced its mouth into its neck. The gushing putrid fluid and foam were actually the corpse's internal organs rotting and filling with air, overflowing from its mouth...

Duan Rong knew that if he didn't deal with it and allowed the giant's corpse to continue mutating like this, it might explode. At that time, the maggots, rotting flesh, and putrid juices in the room might splatter all over his face.

He practiced the White Bone Contemplation, focusing on the word "contemplation," not on spraying his face with maggots and rotten flesh.

Duan Rong decided to release the putrid gas that had accumulated inside the corpse to prevent it from accumulating and causing an explosion.

He slowly rose and walked towards the rotting, bloated corpse. Though it was only a few steps, as he approached the body, the stench suddenly intensified several times over. Piles of fat, white maggots crawled before his eyes…

Duan Rong's facial muscles twitched, and he suppressed his nausea, suddenly raising his hand.

At his fingertips, a delicate surge of vital energy flowed, gently slicing open the rotting corpse's belly like a knife.

The moment the blade slashed open, he swiftly jumped away.

"puff!"

A strong, putrid stench of decay emanated from the gas, which was brownish-yellow in color.

Duan Rong looked at the drifting brownish-yellow gas, and a strong sense of nausea welled up in his eyes.

Even though he jumped away beforehand, and from such a distance, he could still smell the pungent stench. If he were closer, he suspected it would have knocked him unconscious.

After the gas was expelled, the corpse's previously bulging belly deflated, and a large mass of rotten flesh mixed with fluid flowed out from the cut open belly, indistinguishable as intestines or stomach...

Duan Rong forcibly suppressed the nausea surging within him and sat down cross-legged not far from the rotting corpse.

Once the belly of the rotting corpse was cut open, the giant's vision dissipated, because the putrid gases could no longer remain inside the corpse.

After averting the crisis of the exploding corpses, Duan Rong returned to the meditation and cultivation of the White Bone Temple.

Just then, he suddenly noticed that there seemed to be something in the pile of rotten flesh flowing out from the cut open belly of the decaying corpse.

Duan Rong looked at it for a while under the lamplight, and suddenly his eyes lit up.

It was clearly a two-month-old fetus, only the size of a human hand, and it was already rotten all around, but the outline of the fetus was still visible. The fetus was originally connected to the mother by an umbilical cord, but the umbilical cord had obviously broken due to decay, and it was leaking out along with the rotting flesh.

At this moment, Duan Rong finally understood how the corpse in front of him had died.
She didn't accidentally fall into the water and die!
She was pregnant with a child she shouldn't have, and she either drowned herself or was drowned by someone else.

Duan Rong sighed softly; the original alluring appearance of that body was now very blurry to him.

It was as if the disgusting, rotting corpse and the stillborn baby in front of it were its true form.

Humans are undoubtedly ugly.

It's not just its body that's dirty, but its soul that's even dirtier.

Duan Rong sat cross-legged and suddenly realized that those human faces were nothing more than painted skins from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

How foolish it is that humans, trapped by lust, fall into this trap, becoming infatuated with those decaying bodies!
With this visualization, a large part of Duan Rong's deep-seated lust was broken, and a cool sensation slowly spread from the root chakra to the rest of his body.

Duan Rong repeatedly contemplated this thought, and as the days passed, the maggots on the rotting corpse became more and more numerous. Gradually, he could see the ribs under the rotting flesh, and the maggots pupae on those ribs...

Just as Duan Rong was contemplating the maggot crawling over the rib that emerged from the rotten flesh, Chu Wushang's figure suddenly reappeared in the stone cave.

As soon as Chu Wushang appeared, he thrust his spear at Duan Rong's heart again in mid-air.

Duan Rong acted as if he hadn't seen the spear thrusting at him, his mind still calmly focused on the tender white maggots chrysalis on his ribs.

Chu Wushang's eyes were icy cold, and a white light flashed on the tip of his spear, as he was about to blast Duan Rong's heart apart with a single blow.

But when the spear tip pierced Duan Rong's heart, it only ripped apart a layer of skin, leaving a bloody mess.

The spear tip remained there, neither piercing Duan Rong's body nor shattering his heart.

Chu Wushang sheathed his spear, looked at Duan Rong with a strange expression, and said, "Aren't you afraid that I might really blast your heart apart with one spear?"

Upon hearing this, Duan Rong emerged from his meditation, exhaled a breath of stale air, and said, "Death brings peace."

Chu Wushang stared blankly at Duan Rong. He could see that Duan Rong's eyes were unwavering, filled with an almost absolute certainty.

"We've met in this life-or-death struggle!"

After a while, Chu Wushang suddenly said this, and then his figure disappeared like a ghost.

For the next ten days or so, Chu Wushang did not appear again, and Duan Rong remained in a meditative state at the White Bone Temple.

The rotting corpse before them had turned from rotten flesh into a paste, with maggots churning and pupating in it, but the putrid paste was drying up day by day.

Deprived of their food source, the maggots began crawling haphazardly inside the cave...

On this day, Duan Rong suddenly emerged from meditation, shook off a maggot from the back of his hand, and where the corpse had been lying not far away, only a gleaming white skeleton remained.

At that moment, a ray of bright sunlight shone on the white bones.

Duan Rong walked over slowly, bent down, and twisted off the skull of the white bone.

In the bright daylight, he examined the skull in his hand and suddenly laughed, "They say that skulls and white bones are creepy, but after this contemplation, you are actually the cleanest one."

As Duan Rong spoke, he crushed the skull in his hand. The bone fragments fell from his grasp.

Just as he stood up, his deepest lust had completely penetrated his heart.

At this moment, Duan Rong's lips were chapped, his appearance was haggard but his bones were strong, his eyes were reserved and peaceful, and he exuded an indescribable aura.

He gazed at the cave and skeletons before him, and briefly calculated how many times sunlight had shone in that day. He realized he had been here for over a month.

Duan Rong then walked to the stone gate and gently patted it.

With a few muffled thuds from the stone gate, Chu Wushang appeared behind him like a ghost. He glanced at the skeleton inside the cave, then looked at Duan Rong, whose face was haggard and whose mind was focused, and asked, "Has the demon of lust been broken?"

"It's broken," Duan Rong said in a slightly hoarse voice.

Chu Wushang looked at Duan Rong and said, "Alright!"

The next moment, his figure vanished on its own, and then the stone gate in front of him trembled and rose up amidst the rustling of falling pebbles.

Duan Rong turned his head and took one last look at the cave and the skeletons before slowly walking out.

He stepped out of the stone gate and walked towards the base of the wall. The sound of flowing water there clearly attracted him.

Duan Rong sat in the cave for more than a month. Although the cave was damp and worn, he still felt his throat was dry.

Chu Wushang followed behind Duan Rong, after all, the bamboo basket he had half-woven was still placed next to the stone table.

Chu Wushang picked up the bamboo basket from the ground, preparing to continue weaving.

Duan Rong had already reached the base of the wall. He was about to scoop up some water to drink when he suddenly felt an itch on his neck. He reached out and pinched it, finding a plump maggot in his hand.

Duan Rong glanced at the maggot, smiled slightly, and flicked it away.

For over a month, he sat in that damp cave, surrounded by rotting corpses, never tiring of the sight of these maggots that had initially disgusted him. Now, he was almost indifferent to them; in fact, after contemplating them for a while, he even found them somewhat endearing.

Chu Wushang's eyelids twitched involuntarily, because he saw Duan Rong flick his finger, and a white dot fell to the ground not far from his feet. Looking down, he saw a small white maggot pupa there.

Chu Wushang stomped the white maggot to death with one foot.

The next moment, Chu Wushang was speechless. After Duan Rong flicked away the little white maggot, he didn't even wash his hands, but squatted down by the stream and scooped up water to drink.

"This kid is really fierce!" Chu Wushang thought to himself.

Chu Wushang had seen many people who practiced the White Bone Contemplation, and most of them would experience some aftereffects afterward.

By using the contemplation of the white bones to penetrate lust, it is sometimes inevitable to go too far astray or stray slightly. Some people who were originally slovenly may even become obsessive about cleanliness after practicing the contemplation of the white bones.

He had never seen anyone like Duan Rong before, who could flick away white maggots as soon as he came out and drink water without hesitation.

Duan Rong scooped up water several times and drank it to his heart's content before washing his face with the water. Then he stood up and wiped the water off his face with his sleeve.

Chu Wushang looked at him and said, "You can rest for two days, adjust your state of mind, and enter the meditative state again to try to break through your inner demons. The White Bone Contemplation and the Birth and Death Contemplation should be fine. If you can't break through the other inner demons, you can also practice other methods of counteracting them after you come out of meditation."

"Yes, Mr. Chu," Duan Rong said. "However, Mr. Chu, I don't need to rest. I will enter the meditative state now and try to break through all my inner demons."

"Now?" Chu Wushang's face showed a look of surprise.

Duan Rong said, "Yes, although I sat in that cave for more than a month, my mind is quite clear and my spirit is abundant. I am in a good state."

Chu Wushang looked at Duan Rong as if he were looking at a ghost, and said, "Alright. Since you feel good, then go ahead."

Upon hearing this, Duan Rong bowed to Chu Wushang and then walked towards the prayer mat.

Watching Duan Rong's retreating figure, Chu Wushang muttered, "What a strange fellow." (End of Chapter)